


A Scattered Dream

by AmuletStormfall



Category: Legion of Super Heroes (TV), Legion of Super-Heroes (Comics), Supergirl (Comics), Supergirl (TV 2015)
Genre: F/M, Gen, I'm sorry for making Brainy angst over Kara before he even meets her, Light Angst, but also i'm not, minor mentions of other Brainy ships, multiverse drama
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-17
Updated: 2018-01-17
Packaged: 2019-03-06 04:11:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,608
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13403205
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AmuletStormfall/pseuds/AmuletStormfall
Summary: Hypersleep is made all the worse for Querl as he dreams of himself in a seemingly infinite number of other lives. - [Supergirl 3x10]





	A Scattered Dream

_"A scattered dream that’s like **a far-off memory**. A far-off memory that’s like **a scattered dream**. I want to line the pieces up -   **yours and mine**." _

_– Kingdom Hearts II_

* * *

 

Hypersleep is…unpleasant.

Brainiac 5 wants to investigate the effects of hypersleep on the mind. Perhaps he should start with other Coluans; their experience might be different from a twelfth-level intelligent mind like his. Right now, however, he is stuck in this pod and unable to conduct any experiments.

He’s not awake, he has designed the ship well enough that staying asleep shouldn’t be a problem. He believes he is dreaming right now, lucidly to be precise. It is not much better than being conscious, but it could be worse. He can’t tell how long he has been dreaming, which is probably preferable to being conscious until they reach the thirty-first century.

His dreams keep shifting. He knows dreams do not have a logical sequence, however, he feels strangely _different_ in each one. He relives his adventures with the Legion several times over. His place in the Legion remains as it always is: the brains and (he would argue) the backbone of the team.

It feels as if he’s living through several lives. Querl remembers which is _his_ Legion. _His_ Legion was founded by Mon-el to combat the turmoil plaguing the galaxy. While there are threats to the peace in the other versions he dreams through, they are often isolated incidents within a prevailing time of peace.  He is always aware of his own past yet he says nothing of it as he lives through the other dream-Legions. It could be more accurate to say there are two of him, the ones making the decisions in-dream and the part of him that _knows_ this is all a dream. It seems a bit convoluted for a dream, though Querl rarely remembers his dreams, so perhaps this is always how they are like.

He’s not quite enjoying this experience. Querl likes to be in control and this state is not allowing him much freedom. He is aware of his lack of ability at conforming to social niceties at times, however, he feels that some of the versions of himself take it much too far. Some of them seem brasher and ruder, though he takes into account that these dream versions of himself have different histories than he does. His history varies so much that even he has to concentrate to keep track. He knows himself to be half-computer and half an organic life-form. There are some versions of him who have always been organic life-forms, descended from the original Brainiac’s clone, Vril Dox. There is also a version that is fully an android, yet _becomes_ an organic life-form after being infected by a program left by the original Brainiac. He shudders to think of the destruction that could occur if that were to happen to him. He makes a note to himself that once this dream is complete, he will run a self-scan and ensure there is no such similar program residing in him.

Querl is determined to remain calling it a dream, rather than a nightmare. He does not want to dwell on all the deaths that keep occurring. Every death hurts him. His hands are stained red over and over again with the death of his teammates – his friends, as he admits in several of the versions. Their deaths are never actually directly his fault, but he realises that on many occasions it is his arrogance, his pride and his damned twelfth-level intelligence that causes their demise.

Then there is Colu. The one consistent thing in all the versions is that he leaves Colu. It is almost always by choice. Dishearteningly, it seems that some of his actions have more than once caused him to be exiled from his planet. It is bad enough to be rejected by your people, but he does not know if there was a worse moment then having to go through having his mother try to kill him. He is just glad that this doesn’t happen in all of the versions.

There are happier times in his dreams. Despite many the common pattern of isolating himself, he does end up having close friends. Mon-El, Imra, Cham, Lyle, Ayla, Dirk and Gates are the Legionnaires that tend to keep him company when he requires it, when his mind is so far gone that he _needs_ them. Rond and Circadia are two that are often present too; it gives him comfort to know that he has a place outside of the Legion at times where his presence is barely tolerated. There are other Legionnaires that he is certain he doesn’t know, yet seem familiar once introduced.

As impossible as it sounds to him he falls in love several times. Nura and Lyle he understands, he would never say that they are unattractive by any means. Laurel’s case is unfortunate, he ends up marrying his best friend, but Rond is there for him in many of the versions so he doesn’t hold it against them. He is attracted to Superman in one of the versions; he’s quite pleased that he has interacted with such a renowned historical figure.

Supergirl – that’s another recurring relationship that he has. In most versions of the Legion he and Supergirl meet for the first time _twice_. Remarkably, none of these meetings are one of the 4,237,642 ways that he has already envisioned himself. He is usually younger than her when he ‘first’ meets her. Whenever she meets him for the first time, however, his heart _shatters._ She is never fond of him at first, because he pushes her away, he is always an older, broken man who knows her future. Every time he falls hopelessly in love with her, she _dies._ He does nothing because she is _supposed_ to die. Kara is so important to history, for inspiring so many to follow in her footsteps for her sacrifices, that he can _never_ intervene. He can never change the timeline. The only thing he can do is make sure she never dies alone.

There is at least one version where he and Kara live happily. She stays in the future and they even have a beautiful daughter together. He is unsure whether that one version is enough to make up for all the versions of himself that never tell Kara her fate. It would spare both of them the pain.

It is a comfort then, that he will never have to experience this tragedy for himself. After all, Mon-El had loved her for years and he has had to move on because he knows he’ll never see her again. Despite Querl’s imaginings of meeting Supergirl, he knows they are simply delusions.

He wishes to wake up soon. With the Blight on their tails, he has a lot more important thing to attend to then to ponder on his dreams. Still, his Legion was inspired by Supergirl, and if the Supergirl in this dream is anything like the one that Mon-El spoke of, now he knows exactly why.

 

* * *

 

 

Brainiac 5 has no recollection of his dream when Mon-El and Imra wake him up from hypersleep.

He is filled in on the situation, and as always, is quick to grasp it. He sets off to work immediately, though in the back of his mind he wonders if his initial prediction of the likelihood that they wake up before reaching the 31st century was wrong. He remembers that he placed it at a probability of 5.3999999984%. Performing another calculation in his head very quickly, he surmised that perhaps it was actually closer to 5.3999999994%.

How careless of him.

He finishes this calculation just as he finishes setting up for communications with Supergirl and explaining how the details of how the technology works to the DEO members present. They show no signs of understanding anything he has said to them. It’s to be expected, the Earthlings of the 31st century average out to having 9th level of intelligence and most of them find it difficult to follow his thinking. The 6th level of intelligence that 21st century Earthlings will definitely have a significantly more difficult time.

It does not matter that much that they don’t understand how it works, they’re main concern is that he is able to reach Supergirl, and they urge him to enter her subconscious as quickly as he can.

As soon as he enters, he finds himself in a corridor, standing in front of the door. He looks around and is immediately intrigued by his surroundings, this already seems like nothing one could find in the 31st century. Querl spots a piece of ancient art hanging off the wall, the colours drawing him in. He is captivated by how motionless it is.

He hears the door behind him open.

Querl finds Supergirl looking at him, a quizzical expression quickly forming.

After preparing a sleeping Supergirl earlier on, it’s not the first time he’s seen her. All the same, every one of his thirty-two of his trains of thoughts crash in this instance.

His mouth drops slightly, and he struggles to find words.

Stories of Supergirl have always interested him and have always pushed him to do good for the universe. Even though he never met her, he admires her and what she stood for.

He feels a sense of awe and excitement.

His eyes are wide and his heart -

“It’s you.”

\- aches?

“Can I help you?”

The moment she speaks, that momentary pain disappears at once…

Almost as if he has dreamed it.

 

**Author's Note:**

> I've read some Young Justice fics where Tim Drake remembers his comic counterpart self and acts accordingly, which is probably where the inspiration to do this came from. I started writing this before the start of the season, so anything including 3x10 info was written earlier today. I tweaked some lines to better fit CW!Brainy's personality, though I don't know if it worked out well, haha. I do wonder what a twelfth level intellect dreams of, I feel like it would be really different. 
> 
> Anyway, I quite liked CW!Brainy. Different than I'm used to but not a bad different. Plus his interactions with Kara are adorable and I can't wait to see more.
> 
> (I'll probs edit this again tomorrow or something but I was itching to post this, so I'll see what errors I catch later lol)


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